Building blocks of dance

Ada Brunstein, Johanna Henke-von der Malsburg, Zoe Cheng, Les James

We would like to take the elements that make up dance - rhythm, synchrony, embodied expression such as gesture - and look at these elements through the lens of child development, animal behavior, and evolution. In particular we’d like to know when these elements develop in childhood, what other aspects of development they correlate with, to what extent they exist in animals, and whether we can make any inferences about the evolutionary trajectory of these elements as they relate to dance. We would also love to know how you feel about dance! If you have a minute, please take our 5-question dance survey: https://forms.gle/uFazq6sFTqLgnS2RA